


Anxiety

by Time_to_play_a_little_tune



Series: Barrisco Prompts [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Anxiety, Barrisco - Freeform, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 11:19:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6608683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Time_to_play_a_little_tune/pseuds/Time_to_play_a_little_tune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt where Barry calms Cisco down from an anxiety attack</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anxiety

**Author's Note:**

> This prompt was from @ravenclawtardislove on Tumblr

Cisco had always had anxiety when growing up. It didn’t help that he was the nerd that even other nerds didn’t want to hang out with. The thing was that it hadn’t been too bad. Everyone thought he was just shy and Cisco didn’t think there was anything wrong with him. He was happy to spend time in his books and writing down his ideas. His parents had basically given up on him changing his ‘hobby’ so they stopped pushing him like they had before. No one thought much of Cisco’s behaviors since he was considered odd anyway. The first time he had ever had an anxiety attack, a real and true one that actually made him realize something was wrong, was in highschool. 

*  
It was time for gym and there was a sub that day. Their class went up to the second floor to the room dubbed the mirror room. It was where poms or color guard would normally practice their routines. There was a door on either side of the room and the floor was light hard foam. One wall was lined with two large mirrors while the back had a set of small windows up high. It was a small room, maybe fitting two rows of about ten or so students with enough room for them to move. Normally Cisco always took the back corner. It allowed him to avoid being looked at as well as being bullied. It was hard for someone to throw something at you when you were behind them with two walls protecting your back. This time, though, someone else got there first. At first Cisco was fine with moving forward. It was just Harper. She couldn’t care less about anyone outside of her friend group so there wasn’t a threat from her unless she tripped up. It was about ten minutes in when he felt panic begin to rise. He felt his breath shortened as his heart raced. He felt his stress rising along with the overwhelming fear causing tears to spring to his eyes. His hands twitched to do something, anything. He started scratching his arm. They itched but no matter how much he dragged his nails back and forth it didn’t help.

“Cisco?” He glanced over to see another girl from his class, Katie, looking at him in worry.

“Are you okay?” He opened his mouth to speak only to close it and shake his head, “What’s wrong?”

“I-I…” He was hyper ventilating. Katie guided him out of the room to the little hallway like area and sat him in the corner.

“Are you going to be okay?” Cisco nodded, “Okay. I’m going to let the sub know you’re out here.” She headed back in and Cisco curled a little more into the corner. His vision darkened and he forced himself to breath. As he calmed down his scratching slowed as well. Looking he saw that he hadn’t drawn any blood but the top layer of skin on both sides had been ripped off. With a steadying breath he got up and went to the nurse’s office. He didn’t think too much of it, assuming it would probably be only a one time thing.

That had been a mistake to think. It continued through high school and even got worse. If anything happened to his carefully kept notes or someone damaged his books, even the slightest crease, anxiety would grip him. He never mentioned it to anyone. Eventually once in college he got better. He got them less when surrounded by people though it would spike when something happened to his books or projects. Then he started working at STAR labs. Caitlin seemed to suspect something but it had been Dr. Wells who had figured it out first. He had taken Cisco aside to speak about it. He let himself be convinced to see a psychiatrist who had given him medication but too often he would forget to take them and Ronnie had suggested some non medicative ways to deal with the problem. Cisco exercised and tried worry busting strategies. He continued with his routine, finally somewhat managing. Everything was going good for a few years then the accelerator blew up.

*  
Cisco was stressed and that was never a good thing. With the Reverse Flash running around and the constant nightmares that weren’t actually nightmares every night, he was running on empty. He could feel the anxiety beginning to build up again, the worry of being around people and he’s had to excuse himself when someone accidentally messed up his notes. He would disappear into his workplace to let the minor anxiety attack take over but then he was fine.

“Hey Cisco.” Iris greeted as she walked in. Cisco nodded in response as he looked over his notes. He noticed when Iris put down the cup of coffee it landed on a piece of paper with various formulas written on it. He forced himself to calm down and moved it only for his heart rate to skyrocket when he saw the partial coffee stain.

“I-I’ll be back.” Cisco stood, turning quickly as he headed towards the door. He had started calming down as he made his way towards his lab but as soon as he reached the entrance he froze. Everything, everything he had worked on, all the perfectly done notes that were stacked a very specific way, ruined. He couldn’t breath, his vision tunneling and he didn’t notice when he curled up on the floor, backing into a corner. Tears were blurring his vision but he couldn’t cry. Not over this. That was what he told himself every time but it didn’t help at all. Instead his hands moved to his arms, nails once more biting into his skin.

“Cisco? Are you in here? Iris sa- Cisco?” Barry’s face was suddenly in front of his.

“Cisco. I need you to focus okay?” Vaguely he felt Barry grab his hands to stop them from moving.

“Breath with me okay? I’ll count. One, two, three, in… one two three out. We’re going to do it again, okay?” Cisco focused on Barry’s breathing, his hands on his arms grounding him and calm voice helping to relax him. Cisco wasn’t sure how long it was but eventually he could breath easier, his chest not as constricted.

“What happened?”

“I- it was just an anxiety attack.” Cisco admitted.

“What caused it?”

“My lab.”

“Okay, okay. Just wait here for a minute okay?” Cisco nodded, curling in on himself as he heard Barry running.

“I’m going to clean and bandage your arms now.” Cisco let Barry take care of his arms. When that was done Barry settled next to him, wrapping an arm around him. Heavily Cisco leaned into his side. Barry rubbed his back.

“Do you want to talk about it now?” Cisco shook his head, hiding it in Barry’s shoulder.

“Okay, we don’t need to. It’s okay.” The silence lasted only for a few moments before Barry started humming softly. Relaxing further it wasn’t long before Cisco drifted off, feeling better with Barry beside him.

*  
Cisco woke up on a bed with Barry sitting in a nearby chair, reading a book.

“You’re lab’s cleaned. SOme of the stuff might still be out of place but most of it’s better.” Barry said as soon as he heard him shuffle, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” A glass of water was being handed to him.

“You should drink it.” Cisco nodded, doing as instructed.

“I’ve always had anxiety attacks,” Cisco explained, “They had gotten better but lately they’ve got worse again. Normally they aren’t bad.”

“What happened?”

“Well if I’m having a bad day then something as small as my notes getting messed up can trigger one. I go to my lab to calm down, maybe take a nap. I went in there, saw that and it triggered a worse one.” Cisco felt the bed shift as Barry sat on it. One of his hands was on his.

“Cisco, if you ever need help call me okay? Anytime and I’ll be there.”

“Bar-”

“I mean it Cisco, anytime.” Looking up he saw the earnest look in Barry’s eyes along with the worry.

“Okay.” Barry smiled softly.

“Okay, take a nap, I’ll get you some of the notes that I couldn’t fix and a new notebook for them.” Maybe he was just imagining it when he shut his eyes but it felt like Barry pressed a kiss on his forehead. Smiling a little Cisco fell back to sleep.


End file.
